Tag: 2008 elections

At first I planned to go to the polls at 10:15am, hoping I would wind up in some endless line, fearing that our local NJ polling spot would be its usual efficient self, and there would be maybe twice the usual number of stragglers there that I’ve usually found when I hit the polls mid-morning, after the pre-work crush — our polls open at 6:00 and the lines usually thin out sometime after 9:00 or 9:30, when most of the wage slaves have gone to work.

But I just couldn’t get to sleep, and found myself obsessing through the night, replaying Rachel Maddow bits, obsessively updating running comment fests that got started days ago in an effort to ease anxieties or allow me to obsess about other factors beyond the election.

I was still awake at 4:30 am, when I decided I wanted a crowd, I wanted to see others no matter what, and I wanted to know there were others doing what I was doing. I also wanted to be among the first to vote for perhaps the first Presidential candidate I can recall, where I was mostly voting for him, and not just voting against some heartless or dangerous loon.   It’s been a long time in the Wilderness — I’ve voted in every Presidential election and nearly every “off-year”, school board and special ballot election that I’ve been eligible for, since I turned 18, at college, in 1977.

xposted from Agent Orange (the poll is over there)

Californians have a special privilege this election year. Note only do you have an opportunity to participate in the election of Senator Obama as President, but you have the opportunity to lead the nation with a massive step toward a more Energy Independent, environmentally responsible transport system.

From the CHSRA:

So, good morning California, and don’t neglect the importance of getting out the vote.

I really needed this!!

I believe I just hit on our next Texas Common Sense put to Good Writing and Humor, though my guess is he’s been around for a while, and that would be one John Kelso.

    America’s Barack

It may be a little early, but I’m already getting ready to celebrate. But first, a short story about media cronyism.

Tomorrow is election day, children. It is one of the most cherished privileges of being an American citizen, and one of the most solemn responsibilities as well.

Many people take great pleasure from having the ability to help to choose who will lead our great nation, and they believe that by voting they are playing an important role in that choice. However, most are unaware that sometimes this process is not as straight forward as one might think.

After millions of well intentioned consumers citizens have gone to the polls to cast their votes, our friends in the media spend many minutes, and millions of dollars, figuring out who really won the election. They add up numbers given to them from computers and pollsters and other pundits, and when they are certain that they can make a reasonably close guess – BAM! – they announce it on television and America has a new president.

So where does this abundant and unregulated power reside?

This article is original to All Over the Board:

So, as I write this, tomorrow is the big day. The people of the US get to choose their next President. There’s a good quote on this over at Socialist Appeal (UK):

Glenn Greenwald, writing for  Salon,  calls it “the single worst expression in American politics.”

You may have your own nominees for that distinction, but his is “Commander in Chief,” which is used these days as a substitute for President.

He quotes Joe Biden on the stump:

After next Tuesday, the very critics he has now and the rest of America will be calling him something else – they will be calling him the 44th president of the United States of America, our commander in chief Barack Obama!

Actually, I won’t be calling him that if he wins on Tuesday.  I got my discharge papers in 1970.  I’m not in the military any more.  And neither are most Americans.

Says Greenwald:

This is much more than a semantic irritant.  It’s a perversion of the Constitution, under which American civilians simply do not have a “commander in chief”; only those in the military — when it’s called into service — have one.

The President is Commander in Chief only of active duty military personnel — and only in wartime.  (Some, including George Bush and Dick Cheney, would argue that we are now permanently “at war” on terrorism.)

Looking around, it appears that I’m not the only one trying to go through however many stages of grief there are in a very compressed time span. I got to trying to expound on the thinks inside my skull for myself, and ranted and raved for a few words, sprawling through tension and tenses, and various points of view, and thought, might as well share.

I feel better having spewed it out onto a microsoft word document, and I kinda like the way this movie ends….love to hear what you think, though, and what sorts of crazy thoughts are careening through your own skullspaces…

It’s Time.  Done writing.  Done talking.  Done thinking.  Done worrying.  Done with it.

It’s Time.  Time to vote.  Time to make my voice heard.  Time to let the past go (at least for just one day).  Time to move forward and accept decent and hard-fought change, change folding our way for once.

It’s Time.  You know what to do.  You know what to do right now.  You know I’m not preaching to you.  You know I’m preaching only to myself.  You know I need to preach to myself.  I just need to hold it together for one more day.

It’s Time.  GOTV.  STFIL.  Make your voice heard.  Make my voice heard.  Keep my side of the bargain.  Make living worthwhile.  Let my country be strong and proud again.

It’s Time.  I need to say thank you.  I need to say it to you all.  Everyone who reads this and everyone who misses it.  I need to learn how to say ‘thanks’ better.  For right now this is the best I can do.

It’s Time.  Thank you.  My depression has lifted.  I am no longer afraid.  It’s Time To Come Alive.  You all have helped me to this point.  Blue and Orange both.  Now it’s my turn to give back with the best weapon I have:  My Vote.

It’s Time.  Oh God…finally it’s time!

It’s Time.